In many computer systems, electronic components are typically mounted on a plurality of circuit boards. These circuit boards, often referred to as daughterboards, are typically mounted on a motherboard so as to allow electrical connections to be made between the electronic components mounted on the daughterboards. The mounting of the daughterboards on the motherboard is typically accomplished through conventional pin-and-box connectors. However, there are intrinsic and mechanically related parasitics associated with these conventional pin-and-box board-to-board connectors. This type of connector, due to mechanical design constraints, is inherently bandwidth limited by parasitic elements of excess capacitance and inductance. These parasitics put limits on maximum signal transmission bandwidth across the mother and daughter boards. In fact, the best connector that is presently known in the industry claims to be able to handle 5 Gb/s, which cannot meet the bandwidth demands associated with new telecommunication systems, which are on the order of 10 Gb/s.
There are also space concerns associated with the use of conventional pin-and-box board-to-board connectors. That is, conventional pin-and-box board-to-board connectors typically have bulky mechanical shrouds which take up valuable board and shelf space.
An additional problem that occurs during high speed signal transmission is cross-talk between adjacent signal conductors as further explained in U.S. Patent Application Ser. No. 09/443,128. This problem is particularly troublesome at high signal speeds such as 10 Gb/s.
In view of the foregoing, it would be desirable to provide a technique for making electrical signal connections between circuit boards which overcomes the above-described inadequacies and shortcomings. More particularly, it would be desirable to provide a technique for electrically interconnecting signals between circuit boards while eliminating problems associated with mechanical electrical connectors.